Wes Community Programs

Smith Field

With an official ceremony Saturday. April 29, 2006, including a
ribbon-cutting by head men's lacrosse coach John Raba, Wesleyan opened its
new artificial turf field. Then on Saturday, October 21, 2006 during
Wesleyan's Homecoming/Family Weekend festivities, the field received its
name - Smith Field, in honor of major benefactor Warren "Renney" Smith '78
and his wife, Tiina. Located in the Long Lane property acquired by
Wesleyan from the State of Connecticut several years earlier, the turf field had been
under construction since the fall of 2005, and made its varsity debut when
the field hockey team hosted Babson College Thursday, Sept. 14, 2006. The turf
field is lined for lacrosse, field
hockey and soccer and is used mainly for women's lacrosse
during the spring and field hockey during the fall. Men's lacrosse also plays a number of its early-season games on the turf and both soccer teams have occasion to play on the turf during inclement weather situations. According to
Director of Athletics John Biddiscombe, there had been an increasing trend
toward the use of synthetic turf fields among schools in northern climates
over the last decade. Wesleyan had traveled to Springfield
College, Trinity College, Connecticut College and West Haven High School
before the completion of Smith Field for "home" games during the spring and fall due to
unplayable conditions on Wesleyan's grass fields. Currently all NESCAC
colleges have at least one turf field and some are outfitted with multiple synthetic playing fields. "I think [the new
synthetic turf field] will be a big help because we will finally have
Wesleyan turf as our turf field instead of playing at Trinity," said Fiona
Lundy '08, who was a member of the women's lacrosse team. "It will be
great to play here and get more fans out." The synthetic turf field allows Wesleyan's varsity teams to practice and play when the grass
fields are unplayable. Although it will be geared toward field
hockey and lacrosse teams, numerous other varsity and recreational sport
teams will have opportunity to use the new field. Planning for the
new field began around 2004. The project was completely
funded by gifts from alumni, parents and friends of Wesleyan athletics.
Over $1 million had been raised at the time of completion with another $300,000 later raised to
support lights, bleachers, a scoreboard and protective netting.
While Coach Raba, representing the athletic department, got to do the
honors with the scissors April 29, individuals representing the
administration, parents, alumni and student-athletes all gathered for the
official ceremony, which featured short speeches from Biddiscombe ; Alumni
Director John Driscoll ; Preston Smith '64, father of men's lacrosse
player Matt Smith '06, who helped spearhead the project with other parents
and alumni ; and Raba. A tasty barbeque followed the speeches.
The naming ceremony preceded Wesleyan's field hockey game vs. Amherst and
was attended by Renny and Tiina Smith and their three children.